When DH and I first moved to our major tourist city, I worked in gaming surveillance. I worked at three different properties, the last being a vey major property where I was hired as part of the opening staff (which was an amazing experience). Working the day shift meant I at least got to keep normal hours, but it also meant having our director and all the execs looking over our shoulders every minute. It was stressful and we would crack jokes - a lot - as laughter seemed to help.

One morning we were all on edge as we knew the Head Honcho (famous for interrogating random employees and throwing temper tantrums) would be bringing a newly hired slot exec up to see the ro and meet the staff. We finally got the call that they were on the way up. Knowing we ha about ten minutes, the jokes started flying - "Hey Tom, put down the bong!" "Okay Floyd, make sure you close your (adult website) window, and Linda, hide your crack pipe," etc. Then the phone rang. It was the rather perturbed security supervisor.

See, every station in the surveillance room was equipped with a mic tuned to the property's security channel. This way, if we saw/were tracking something, we could easily communicate with the security staff on the floor. Well... right before we started our laugh fest, I had accidentally moved a folder over and inadvertently keyed my mic. So our whole hilarious conversation was broadcast to every one of the 30+ officers on duty, and the supervisor was calling to let us know.

It was unquestionably (if unintentionally) rude as anyone listening could have been quite offended by our jokes. After the VIPs left I fessed up to our director. Luckily she was in a good mood and brushed it off with an admonishment to be more careful in the future. And so we were!!

As long as everyone (you knew about) who was listening was okay with that type of joke, I don't think the jokes were inappropriate. Different cultures vary, and what might be okay with one group might not be okay with another. IMHO it's an all-or-none thing - if even one person is uncomfortable or offended, the jokes need to stop. (This isn't taking into account "jokes" which harm people indirectly by perpetuating harmful stereotypes, etc. - those could get their own whole forum!)

That said, I do think it was smart for you to follow up with your supervisor about your mistake as soon as you could. Even though you didn't intend your jokes to be broadcast to a larger audience, they were - and part of talking to other people is owning up to the consequences when that speech has repercussions you didn't intend